The third gathering of companies holding patents meant to standardize the means for acquiring online content via set-top boxes has been set by the Via Licensing Corp.
ETRI, LG, NDS, Philips, Samsung, and Sharp are involved in the development of personal video recorders using TV-Anytime Phase One (TVA-1), which the companies believe will more easily let consumers find and manage video and a broad variety of audiovisual and other multimedia and interactive content, Via Licensing said announcing the November 9-10 meeting.
"Joint patent licensing programs provide the market with a convenient and cost-effective way to obtain licenses to patents that are essential to the practice of a standard," Via said in the announcement. "By doing so, the programs encourage greater adoption of the standard. Without such a joint license, the process of providing and obtaining necessary licenses would be cumbersome and expensive for all parties."
Via director of licensing and business development Jason Johnson was unavailable for further comment before this story went to press, but Via said in a press release that the six companies involved with TVA-1 hope to get licensing on the joint patent into the marketplace by the second quarter of 2005.
The meeting is also open to anyone who holds any existing patents that might prove critical to the TVA-1 standard's practice. In a shift from the sometimes litigious of late world of new media patents, Via and the six companies seem to want cooperation and not litigation when it comes to technology that portends as broad and variable a presence in the market as did products from the original industrial and early high tech revolutions.
"The marketplace benefits from the participation of as many patent owners as possible, through the inclusion of more intellectual property in the license and by the participation of more parties in development of the terms of the license and program," the company said.
Via said those who think they might hold patents prospectively infringed by TVA-1 practice and want to join the November meetings to address those concerns should request further information before attending.
